Pakistan: 'Did Not Even Know Osama bin Laden was in Abbottabad'

Pakistan's foreign office rejected journalist Seymour Hersh's claim.

Pakistan did not even know that Osama bin Laden was in Abbottabad and was not aware of the US operation to assassinate him, the country's foreign office said on Thursday, reaffirming the White House's stand that was challenged by American journalist Seymour Hersh.

In an article that was published on The London Review of Books website on Sunday, Hersh claimed to have broken down the American "lie" about the killing of the terrorist in Abbottabad on 2 May, 2011.

He claimed that bin Laden was a prisoner of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and that Pakistan helped in the assassination operation planned by the Barack Obama-led US government.

However, Pakistan has now said it did not even know that Laden was in Abbottabad and that the government did not have prior knowledge of the raid.

"Pakistan also did not know about presence of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad," said Foreign Office spokesman Qazi Khalilullah in Islamabad on Thursday, Dawn reported.

The White House also rubbished Hersh's claims on Monday and a CIA spokesperson had called it "utter nonsense".

Hersh had told Pakistani newspaper Dawn that Pakistan had helped "a great deal" in the operation.

"They helped. They totally helped. They helped a great deal," he had said.